The invention relates to air conditioning systems in general and to air-purifying systems in particular.
Conventional air-purifying systems are usually provided with a pack of filters to absorb dust particles, gases injurious to health, and other impurities in the air. Usually, such arrangements are turned on manually, for example if the air in a room becomes unacceptably stuffy or if, in a garage or a factory, the air becomes significantly mixed with noxious gases or other impurities that are disagreeable or injurious to health.
Air-purifying systems which must be turned on and off manually are of little use if, for whatever reason, the occupant of the room provided with the air-purifying system fails to turn the system on. Moreover, in situations where the development of high concentrations of impurities sometimes occurs, for instance in garages and factories, the provision of the known air-purifying systems is of only limited benefit, and in some ways almost amounts to a danger; this is because an air-purifying system may have an air-purifying capability far below what is required to counteract the prevailing concentration of impurities, thereby giving the occupants of the room a false sense of security. This danger is particularly present, of course, when the impurities in question are odorless and invisible, for instance carbon monoxide. Even when the impurities are detectable by the occupants of a room, such detectability is largely without meaning if the occupants are asleep. Finally, as an additional disadvantage of the known air-purifying systems, in the event the concentration of impurities in the room being conditioned exceeds the purifying capability of the system, not only is the occupant of the room unaware of this; in addition, the motion imparted to the air in the room by the purifying system may well be such as to increase the concentration of dangerous impurities of the air of the room. For example, if dangerous impurities are entering a closed room through small leakage openings, the movement of air in the room established by the air-purifying system could well be such as to positively draw the impurities out of the small leakage openings at a rate significantly higher than would occur if the air-purifying system were not creating such a movement of air.
Additionally, it happens that the constructions of known air-purifying systems are in general rather complicated and expensive, particularly because they usually include a large number of costly mechanical parts. Also, the known air-purifying systems are sometimes unreliable in their operation.